The subject of the invention relates to a cleaning unit for cleaning at least one head section of a milking cup.
Raw milk represents an important food and is an important raw material for the food industry. In order to protect the consumer and for the purposes of technical processability, it is necessary that the milk meets both national and international quality requirements. In the Federal Republic of Germany, according to §3 of the Milk Regulations, raw milk must not have any abnormal sensory features so that, according to Annex 3 of the Milk Regulations, the udder of animals from which milk is obtained as a food must be cleaned at the start of a milking operation. Here, it is required that a thorough and complete cleaning takes place.
It is important to maintain prescribed standards of hygiene in order to ensure a high milk quality. It is therefore not only necessary to clean the udder and the teats of the animal but also the components of a milking machine. The cleaning can also include a disinfection of the components of the milking machine. The cleaning operation can be carried out by means of a fluid, in particular by means of water, with and without cleaning, disinfecting or other additives. In particular, it is necessary to clean and to disinfect the milking cluster of milk residues. It is not necessary for a disinfection of the milking cluster to take place during every cleaning operation.
The cleaning operation can take place after each milking operation or after a certain number of milking operations.
It is known that, after milking each cow, the milking cluster is cleaned by means of water, a disinfection solution and again water in combination with compressed air. This is a so-called intermediate disinfection.
It is not only necessary that the milk-conveying parts of the milking machine, in particular of a milking cluster, are cleaned. To ensure the quality of the milk, it is, if appropriate, also necessary to clean the outer surface of the milking cups, in particular of the head section of the milking cups. The head section comprises a region which has parts of a teat rubber. The cleaning of the outer part of the teat rubber, in particular of the region of the teat rubber which spans a milking cup sleeve, is particularly expedient when the teat rubber, or generally speaking the shaped teat tube, is made of silicone. The teat rubber can be formed from rubber or other materials. In the case of teat silicone, it is necessary, owing to the greater fat take-up of silicone, also to clean the outer region of the teat silicone head.
For the purpose of cleaning milking cups, different embodiments of a cleaning unit are known. WO 96/08137 discloses a cleaning unit for cleaning at least one head section of a milking cup, comprising a chamber which is substantially circular in cross section. The chamber is delimited by a double-walled wall. The chamber has an opening which is delimited by a sealing element. Adjacent to the sealing element are provided outlet openings through which a liquid conveyed in the double-walled wall can flow into the chamber. The liquid flows along the outer surface of the head section into the milking cup, thereby cleaning the head section and the inner part of the milking cup and also the parts connected to the milking cup.
A problem of such a configuration of the cleaning unit is that the introduction of the head section of the milking cup into the chamber is associated with a considerable expenditure of force. The reason for this is that the sealing element must ensure a fluid-tight connection between the sealing element and the head section in order to avoid vacuum losses.
Document DD 38 942 discloses a cleaning unit for cleaning at least one head section of a milking cup. The cleaning unit has a chamber which is delimited by a wall. The shape of the chamber is substantially in the form of a spherical cap. Sealing between the wall of the chamber and the head section of the milking cup takes place in that the head section is brought to bear against the inner surface of the wall of the chamber. In such a configuration of the cleaning unit, although the end face of the head section of the milking cup is cleaned, the lateral surface of the head section is not, which is particularly disadvantageous when the head section has an inner groove.